Sweden 2008: April 17 - June 5

I booked the tickets yesterday and I can already nearly breathe the Swedish air. I haven't been home for 2,5 years, less five days, when we fly out. Mark will come too, April 30th - May 21st. His longest vacation on record. His only vacation in two years. He SO deserves it.

I plan lots of walking through the forests. Forest is everywhere and as a child I went on hour long exploration walks alone with the dog, searching for old forgotten paths and checking up on my friends the trees and rocks. No Poison Ivy, no Poison Oak. No venomous anything, really. Just trek on out, but wear rubber boots in spring. I can't wait to have the kids experience that which I took entirely for granted when I grew up.

Here's what you would see as you fly in, if you were to come with me. This seemed so unremarkable and boring to me as I grew up. Absence has made me appreciate it. Other Sweden pictures below.

Christmas Family Picture

There is nothing I love so much to have, that I dread so much to make, as family pictures. Here is our annual Family Shot, a snap shot literally, taken in the church foyer on Dec 17, 2007, by a kind, sweet lady I don't know. We are all looking at the camera, (Well, at least FACING the camera) but Mark and I look fairly decent for a change. Annia woke up enough to open her eyes. No one got hurt while taking this picture, I should add. No one got yelled at, or yanked into position. No one fought another family member. No one was bribed with chocolate.
A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
From rear left to right:
Isak, Mark, Victoria
Elina and Annia

P.S. I have added other family pictures below. In classic Fisher fashion each family shot almost did not happen. The one featuring my parents and grandmother, my dad was ready to walk out and so we accepted the 17th shot even though Mark looks a little... excited, and Isak somewhat puzzled. In the one where Elina holds the dog she would not smile until she got to hold it. And hey, it matched our color scheme, except for the red collar.

This is us

Mark and Victoria:
Our kids, perfectly bilingual, and (with great objectivity by parents declared) probably the brightest kids around:

Isak Oliver - 5 and a half, is obsessed with cars (knew them all by make at age 3). Also spends a great deal of time considering eternal things, good and evil and longs for the millennium when there will be no more wars, but in the meantime imagines (and practices) conquering all evil singlehandedly. Currently attends Kindergarten, the youngest in his class, but tallest, to no one's surprise. Has awakened his mother 2-10 times per night since his birth on a rainy July day in Sweden, with no signs of stopping before college....

Elina Matilda - 3 and a half, named this name before anyone of us realized Barbie christened their Fairy Topia lead by the same (Swedish) name! It does not bother our daughter however, who dressed up as a Fairy this Halloween but was greatly disappointed when the costume failed to bring her skyward. She's sweet as few, loves to draw on any surface, including walls, tables etc, and can take any of Isak's friends in wrestling.

Anja Helena - (pronounced Anya) 6 months. Happiest baby in Oklahoma as long as Mamma is around. Like all Fisher babies, her stranger anxiety developed at 3 months, as opposed to 6-7 like the books say. Our new pediatrician said it is not due to undue spoiling (as some have said) but because they are smart. Way to keep a patient happy, Doctor!

Sadie - labrador retriever, almost 8 yrs old, well trained and the prefect pet. (Victoria's first baby).

Our family has five members